Our 2011 election manifesto - Labour Party

Each portfolio‟s core activities will be funded from their own Votes but the Ministry for
Children will be required to develop projects with multiple sectors such as joint health and
housing initiatives to reduce hospital readmission rates for children. The Ministry will be able
to allocate earmarked contestable „innovation funding‟ for this purpose.
Children‟s Summit
Labour will hold an annual Children‟s Summit each year, to be attended by all
agencies working with children, where progress will be reviewed and the children‟s
charter goals will be revisited.
This will become a major policy event with policymakers, practitioners, community groups
and the media to assess the Government‟s performance. It will provide an opportunity to
assess existing policy against the outcomes it produces and offer new alternatives where the
outcomes are not met.
Children, Young Person‟s and their Families Act 1989
Currently, the Children, Young Person‟s and their Families Act 1989 determines how the
state intervenes to protect children from abuse and neglect, and to prevent and address
child and youth offending. Time and constant reinterpretation of this once ground-breaking
Act means it is no longer working as it should for many families today. The previous Labour
Government began the process of updating this Act, however, that bill which made minor
changes to clarify its intentions languished at the bottom of the Order Paper under the
National Government.
Labour will direct the Ministry of Social Development along with the Ministry of
Justice to conduct a review of the Children, Young Person‟s and their Families Act
1989 with the view rewriting the law to better reflect the needs of children and
families in the 21st Century.
This will allow Labour to examine the evidence of what methods and approaches work for
dealing with children and adopting those to have an efficient system.
Eradication of child poverty
Child poverty is a major issue facing New Zealand, but its effects are not always obvious at
the time it does most damage. Evidence is clear that poverty and the struggles that come
with it in the early years have lasting effects: prevention of poverty is paramount to ensuring
that the healthcare and education system are not unnecessarily burdened in the future as
children fail to achieve. Prevention of poverty means the Corrections system will not be not
the end result for children who never felt at home in education and other institutions.
Prevention of poverty will mean New Zealand‟s economic performance is not impeded by
lost capability and productivity.
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